Damn social sites

Ok, there was LiveJournal, but it was annoying cuz it was (for the most part) just a blog.

And there was Friendster, but it was too damn slow.

And there were many others, but none of them seem to matter for long.

MySpace just keeps crashing or saying things are disabled or....  and it isn't nearly as easy to browse through past blogs as other sites (like Blogger)... and they REALLY screw you over when it comes to customizing your site (not allowing & sign or javascript in your CSS for example)....

We've been hoping that Google would pick up the slack... but their Orkut service is also running ASP. Maybe that's why they haven't made it a bigger deal.

And I heard that TagWorld are spammers....

So, what does that leave us?

I think that once we have our server running again, we should design our own. Worst case scenario would be that not many people would use it. Best case scenario, Google would pay us to let them host it and hire me to work on it.

So, what kind of features does it need that these others don't have?

Complete customization control -- ie: XHTML+CSS but NOT like Blogger where it requires rewriting everything from scratch to change one CSS element.

Ajax -- I want to be able to drag'n'drop to make changes to my profile instead of submitting them to see what they look like.

Free

Hosting of content. We can give people a limit (500MB?) but should not limit it to something like 12 pictures. That's just stupid for a social network. We would have to make sure that people are responsible for their own content.

Ability to link to friends who are on other services... So, in your Friend's list, maybe some would show as MySpace, some Friendster, some TagWorld, etc...

New modules/plugins should be easy to obtain. If someone writes a music player that will do playlists, make it something that can be drag'n'dropped in a page editor.

 

So some of you may be thinking that I am stupid for posting this -- that someone like MySpace of Orkut may see it and beat me to the punch. Good, then I would have a worthwhile service to use without having to waste my own time writing it. More power to them.

Sylkwyrm	Looks like you are going to work for google whether they like it or not ;-) Posted by Sylkwyrm on Fri Jan 27 02:42:00 PST 2006
Malachi	Damn skippy :) (I haven't heard that saying in soooo long, had to do it) Posted by Malachi on Fri Jan 27 02:45:00 PST 2006
Kittybat	I like tribe the best- I only use myspace because my friends are here- if they switched to tribe, I would never need to use myspace again. Posted by Kittybat on Fri Jan 27 15:11:00 PST 2006
veluxx	you should go to OS Con, GOOGLE recruits like mad up there. Oh yeah, I guessI just keep hoping Myspace will get better, it even showed up on yahoos front page. I bet it gets bought out, and becomes the butterfly it has so much potential to be. Posted by veluxx on Sat Jan 28 11:45:00 PST 2006
Malachi	hmmm.... OSCON 2006 will take place at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon July 24-28, 2006. Posted by Malachi on Sat Jan 28 12:24:00 PST 2006
Malachi	TagWorld seems to have nice features, but I am leary about trying it since there are so many reports of them spamming people. Besides, none of these sites supposedly "allow" adult content (though I have seen quite a bit of it)... maybe I should move to one that does. Taking a quick glance at this article shows some interesting research... Ryze evidentally show you the links between you and other people... which is much better than how MySpace says someone with no friends (not even Tom) is in your extended network. Also, it allows you to set rules for who can see your contact information. That is kinda kewl. Tribes, according to the article, doesn't allow much personalization and is mostly just groups [myspace terminology]. LinkedIn is strictly for professional use - can't even add pics. Friendster... well, we've all tried it and not stayed.   Posted by Malachi on Thu Feb 02 01:22:00 PST 2006